Stephen Wilhite, popular for designing gifs(graphic interchange format), has passed on at 74.

Reports confirm that Wilhite died from complications from COVID-19. 

Wilhite passed on a few days after he celebrated his 74th birthday which fell on March 3rd. 

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His wife, Kathaleen, affirmed that Wilhite passed on from COVID-19 complications. 

Wilhite will be famously recalled for his creation of gifs, animated images which are still in use. ‘He’ invented gifs in the 1980’s while at CompuServe.

GIF encountered a primary boom in the 2010s. It was noticeable as the word of the year in 2012 by the Oxford American Dictionary.

The gif creator left behind his biological son David, and four stepchildren, eleven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Wilhite’s memorial service was held on Tuesday in Milford, Ohio.

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